Daken Akihiro was exhausted.

He was also very stubborn and wouldn't listen to anybody.

Especially not Bucky at the moment.

Bucky was at his wits' end. He did not sign up to deal with over emotional teenagers when Steve came to him about taking a shift at the Canadian compound they created. He didn't say no, of course he didn't, and they knew he wouldn't if Steve asked him. Then, everything happened. Now four of the kids, yes kids because he was old, had run off to yell at S.H.I.E.L.D, a few had locked themselves in their rooms, which he didn't blame them at all for, it was what Bucky wanted to do himself.

The common area was at least quieter than usual where the man could regroup himself. It was getting later into the night and he knew a lot of them would head to bed. There was training in the morning for those who wanted it. Bucky was still trying to deal with seeing Johnny's face when he found out about his daughter's passing. The look on Kielar's when he saw him. He absolutely hated those looks.

"Papa." a small voice said from under the table next to him, and Bucky leaned over to see the dark-haired child underneath. He spoke little, so anything he said would be special. Keegan had called him Papa a year earlier, after they had introduced him to Mara, who not everyone knew as his daughter yet.

"Keegan. What are you doing out here?" Bucky asked as the boy crawled out and up onto his lap. Keegan looked over toward the door that led to Daken's room. "Is he sleeping?"

"No no. Daddy and Jimmy yell loud."

"Yeah, and Laura is there now too, huh?"

"Mhm, she quiet." he said, leaning against Bucky's chest. "I see Desi, but she real sad."

"I know."

"Papa?"

"Yes Keegan?"

"Wanna see what my Mara give me?" Keegan asked, his little face lighting up, as he said the girls name. Bucky only nodded before the boy brandished a knife from.

"Whoa whoa, kiddo." Be careful with that." Bucky told him, immediately taking the knife from him.

"I told him not to take it out. It is just for emergencies." Mara said, speaking up as she walked into the room. "Hello Papa."

"Hey Mara. No more knives for the six year old, okay?" the girl just shrugged. "I mean it." Bucky stopped and watched her movements before speaking again. "You holding up okay?"

"I don't like Flit being out there without me." She said immediately. "I don't like all the discourse here. That girl was lucky I didn't throw a knife at her idiotic face."

"I'm sure that would have been frowned upon," Bucky laughed. "But I understand. You just have to remember that they are dealing with things that have never happened to them before. They're learning how to cope, and they do that differently."

"Solves nothing by fighting with each other when we should work together." Mara told him, and as if on cue, they could hear the Howletts approaching the area.

"You can;'t just run off like that and tell people to watch out for Keegan. He needs you as much as the others do." James yelled at Daken, who turned away rolling his eyes, which was apparently the wrong move because his brother grabbed him and punched him. "I'm talking to you!"

"You…" Bucky watched as his partner pulled his temper back as he tried to handle his brother. "Never do that again." he growled. "I know you are upset, and I know Mouse is upset, and you are trying your best to handle the situation, but do not come after me."

"Then don't treat me like I don't know what is going on. I know you, you feel guilty that Logan got caught because he was helping us. That he got killed and didn't even know about Keegan or how much you have changed?" James told him not backing down.

"I have never and will never look for his approval. I don't owe him anything in my life."

"You say that Akihiro, but you took the Howlett last name, and you gave Keegan the last name, you built a family and you did all of that to PROVE. You weren't like him." James yelled. "So stop pretending you don't care that he is dead, and probably will not come back from this, ever."

"Maybe you are the one that needs to come to terms with it." Daken snapped. "You hid yourself away from the man most of your life and didn't even tell people you were a Howlett until your mid teens! You decided you would just be a Yashida. So don't come after me like this when you need to deal with your own bullshit!"

"You weren't the only one who he wasn't there for. I had every right to stay away from him! He didn't protect my mom! So yes, I was angry for a very long time, because he should have been there. He should have protected her, but he didn't! I should have been with him, but I refused to go and now look what happened!" James shoved Daken. "I didn't go with him and now he is dead."

"And there it is." Daken shook his head. "The guilt. It isn't…"

"Shut up!" James yelled. "Just shut up."

Bucky picked Keegan up and motioned to Mara to go toward an exit as the fight escalated. As they exited, James launched himself at his brother and the two started fist fighting, Laura on the sideline debating whether to intervene. Giving it a few minutes, she rolled her eyes and walked over, kicking Daken in the head to get his attention and yanking James back by his shirt. "You two dumbasses are more like Logan than either of you will ever admit. Fuck." she shoved James away.

"How am I the goddamn voice of reason in this family? Logan was going to do whatever the hell he wanted, whether someone joined him, and if you think you feel guilty now, what if you had been there? You do realize if it was a choice between you being taken and him, he would have protected you. Because that is what everyone is this stupid family does." Laura yelled at them. "You think James didn't care that you ran off to come get me and my kids? You are an idiot, Akihiro, and I will keep kicking your ass if you think that. You were there more for James than anyone else in the family, even when the Yashidas tried to remove you from the picture. You pulled him from that house and protected him, even though your big bad reputation could have been ruined because you showed even an ounce of empathy toward someone. You practically raised James, why the hell do you think he stays so close to you all the time? Because it isn't your attitude."

Laura took a breath. "And you James. You are supposed to be the levelheaded one of the family. Not starting fights with him. You were raised away from all this chaos and the fighting. The only reason you know anything is because of our dumbass big brother. The only reason you are even in America and ever gave Xavier's a chance is because of Akihiro. The only reason you could build this haven, is because you built connections with people. You both think Logan didn't know that you two had teamed up. You think he didn't know about some things you two did together out in the field, but he did and he has been proud. And yes, if those executions were real, he's gone." She stepped away from them. "But you know the three of us won't let them keep his body, and I know that it has already run through your heads that we're going to get them back, We will get the ones they took from us, and we won't stop until we do."

Daken and James sat on the floor silently, listening to their sister scold them like children. James leaned over to his brother. "This is why she was always his favorite." He told him and Daken nodded in confirmation.

"You can also tell she's a mom."

"Do not make you kick you in the fucking head again, Akihiro." Laura snapped.

Kielar sat in the meeting room with a large pair of headphones on, lost in the loud music he didn't notice Desiree LeBeau take a seat next to him. She waited a moment and tried to get his attention before she tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped, nearly falling out of his chair, and ripped the headphones off. "Jesus, you scared me."

"Funny, mos' people mistake meh f'r da devil, not Jesus." Desiree gave a small smile. "Meh names Desiree, ah know we ain't officially met."

"I followed a lot of your stuff after…"

"When dey attacked meh, oui, dat was a pretty crazy tahme." She said, leaning back. "Da south ain't a very good place to be sometimes. Ah got kinda a love hate relationship with it."

"So..um..sorry not meaning to be rude or anything but, why are you here? Talking to me?" Kielar asked her, confusion written on his face.

"Because ya a leader. Meh friends told me about some of the stuff ya said in the meeting dat was held. Ah get da feeling people would follow ya."

"I don't know. I'm not very good at stuff like that. I just say what I know…"

"It comes from ya heart, Kielar." She said, "Ya come from a place of honesty. Ah see it, da others see it. Steve Rogers saw it."

"So you figured it out too, huh?" Kielar shook his head. "I don't know. I feel like it was convenient that I came along when James didn't want to take up the shield."

"Ah wouldn't say it was convenient sugah, someone had to be alongside dat wild child of deres, he's too chaotic t' be out in da world on his own, if ya have down than think of it they had a babysitter for Iron Lad." She said. Kielar let out a laugh, which made Desiree laugh as well. The two then fell into a comfortable silence with each other.

"How...how are you so focussed now after yesterday?" He asked,

"Ah have t try really hard." She started, "Ah'm an empath, it's why ah wasn't in da meeting. Ah feed off of da emotions around me and raght now dere are a lot of strong ones. It's why ah stick around Izzy and Jimmy so much. Ah was briefly around Jade when we saved those from the trucks, and ah could feel da anger pourin' off of her, so ah thought it best ah don't stir dat pot no more din it needed to be. Ah was watchin' and listenin' though. She made a few people kinda twitchy. She's always had dat effect, though."

"I... thank you for getting Karla from the truck. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten to talk to her before.."

"Ya welcome. Ah'm sorry we didn' get t' her sooner." Desiree said, looking down.

"We can't do that. We can't look at we have accomplished as failures. You might not have saved some people, but you saved others. You know, you said that people look at me as a leader, but there are so many people that admire you. I honestly don't know how you did any of what you accomplished over the past few years. There are murals of you all over New York. I might be someone who people listen to, but you are the one who shows them they have a voice and if they use it, we will hear them. I think together we make things work. You bring people together. We can bring this group of ragtag teams."

"Dat sounds lahke a good idea." Desiree said.

Tommy ran into the room before they could continue their conversation. "Hey! Another group just arrived. I think my dads are with them." Kielar jumped up and went to the door. "They might have some news. You should come too…" he said, pointing to Desiree. "Sorry I don't know your.."

"Desiree, her name is Desiree. Let's go." Kielar said and took off with Tommy. Desiree followed them. As they ran down the corridor towards the hangar, James Rogers met up with them. "Are they really here?" Kielar asked him.

"I think so. Dakota told me to head down there." he told them. They slowed down before entering the area, and Desiree pushed past the group of boys, a sob escaping her.

"Papa!" she screamed, and Remy LeBeau turned when he heard his daughter's voice. She ran to him and he enveloped her in a hug as she broke down. He whispered and comforted her as he kept his arms holding her tightly.

"Petite." He said when he finally pulled away. "We're okay, y' okay."

"Mama…"

"I know. I know. We heard. Dey told us y' saw da telecast. But we're here now, da family is here and y' don' gotta hold all of it on y' shoulders no more." He said and pulled her back into a hug.

"Us LeBeau's don' go down wit'out a fight," Luc said, joining the hug. "An' we sure as hell don' let nobody hurt our family."

"Hell no." Sebastian said. "An' dey ain't never had t' deal wit' more din' one at a tahme."

"Dey got t'ree generations t' get through." Henri added.

"An' I didn' raise no quitters." Jean Luc told them, and kissed the top of Desiree's head.

Tommy, Kielar and James remained where they were, watching the LeBeau reunion. "You see where she get's it from now don't you?" a voice said from behind. The three spun around to see Steve and Tony standing there. "We were going to wait, but left and took it." Steve explained. "I hear you three had quite the adventures."

"It was him!" All three of them pointed to each other, making Tony laugh.

"I think James is the only one that followed any protocol we put in place." the billionaire said to them. "But I can't be upset when you all made it here safely." he took a minute before holding a bracelet out to Tommy. "You'll probably be needing this soon." he said as his son took it and put it on his wrist. "We have both your uniforms as well. We knew you probably didn't have them, and nothing was here."

"We're proud of you boys, despite one of you ending up on the internet."

"That...that is fair, but also I was very sleep deprived." Tommy defended himself.

"How did you guys get here, anyway? How did you get the LeBeau's here?" Kielar asked.

"They sent a message out on a shortwave radio, which signaled the Howletts that were still around. But they weren't the only ones to hear."

"In the end, I contacted my father." Azari said. "And they picked up whoever needed it. The plan had been for them to return to Wakanda where they would be safe, but that changed when they wanted to see you, and Remy requested to see Desiree. And that is how we are here now." he informed them. "We would not allow anybody to be left behind, and most here were exhausted. I did what I needed to do."

"And we will return to Wakanda." T'Challa approached. "There are not enough resources for those who are here. It would be wise to have some return with us. We can train those who would like to and allow those who need it to just have a safe place to be. We will remain for the night, as we have contacted Stephen Strange to help with the transport."

"Next order of business is to find out who the government has on their side." Steve said as he crossed his arms.

"Only a few knew about da Muramasa blade." Remy told them as he approached with the rest of the family. "And I t'ink it would be safe t' assume dat its a mutant dat dey have workin' wit' dim."